observances, and judicial sanctions, were afterwards added to it, but these did not alter the nature of the original institution; nor, when they were abrogated by the introduction of the Gospel, did the obligation to keep the Sabbath holy lose one tittle of its force. Now mark also the terms of the fourth commandment. It begins thus: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." The Sabbath is spoken of as being well known and already observed. Mark the reason assigned for its observance," For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." Why had the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it? Because that on it he rested from the work of creation. And when had the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it? Unquestionably at the exact time when he ceased from the work, for these are the very words of our text: "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." This coincidence of

language does of itself seem to make the argument irresistible, that the Sabbath was enthroned in all its authority at the very time which it was appointed to commemorate.

Next let us notice the ceremonies and judgments, by which the Lord put a further honour upon the Sabbath in the Jewish dispensation. In the ceremonial law it was ordered, (Num. xxviii. 9.) that besides the daily sacrifices offered every morning and evening, an additional lamb, with its meat-offering and drinkoffering, should be presented each time on that holy day. On that day the shew-bread was to be renewed on the golden-table before the Lord; and other similar marks of distinction were put upon it. The penalty of death was also then annexed to the breach of it, as we read in the fifteenth chapter of the book of Numbers, in the case of the man who was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

I need not remind you how many of the pious effusions of David's soul, and the strains of his harp, celebrate this blessed day. Neither need I repeat to you the many threatenings of the Prophets against the Israelites for their

neglect or desecration of it, or their prophetic promises of good on its observance. Take only one of these last from the words of the prophet Isaiah; (lviii. 13.) "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shall honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

Let me not however omit to notice that our blessed Lord himself, he who was Lord of the Sabbath, was strict in his observance of that sacred day, even as he was in the fulfilment of all righteousness. We read, (Luke iv. 16.) that it was his custom to go

gogue on the Sabbath day.

often teaching there upon it,

into the syna

We find him

and justifying

the miracles which he wrought on that day, as works of mercy which were not transgressions

of its sacred rest. In like manner the Apostles observed and kept that day. We find it said of St. Paul (Acts xvii.) that at Thessalonica, where was a synagogue, "Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." And we further learn (xviii. 4.) that at Corinth "he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks."

Thus we see the honour which was put upon the Sabbath, and the care which was taken for its observance throughout the whole period of the Scripture History. It was instituted immediately after the creation of man, and hallowed as a day of rest. Miraculous provision was made for its observance in the wilderness. It makes one of the ten commandments. Under the Jewish law, various ceremonies of honour were attached to it, and the penalty of death inflicted for its transgression. The prophets of Israel denounced judgments on the people if they despised it, and promised them blessings if they kept it. Our blessed Lord and his Apostles shewed their sense of the

obligation of the commandment, and gave their additional authority to its observance. These things all unite in Scripture to shew, that in all ages and countries, and under every dispensation, men should remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

I now proceed to shew you, secondly, that the change in the day, from the seventh day to the first day of the week, was made by Apostolic authority. But first I may observe that so long as one day in seven is kept, the proportion of time which God required to be given to himself, is hallowed for that purpose. A weekly rest being still observed, the spirit of the original institution remains inviolate. Nevertheless, as there is no express command for the change in the New Testament, it behoves us to shew why the first day of the week is universally observed as the Christian Sabbath. It appears then that this was the day on which the first Christians uniformly met together in their religious assemblies. This is most evident from a passage in the Acts of the Apostles, the twentieth chapter and sixteenth verse. "We came to Troas," writes St. Luke, "where we abode